The following is actually a sermon preached by John Piper over 30 years ago. It sounds like it is from this week! It is about political correctness and HOW the world is working our minds to either believe a lie, or to scare us into shutting up! Don’t do EITHER! We ARE the light of the world… and the world, the flesh and the devil are working OVERTIME to put our light out! Pastor John gives examples of slogans in his day — Orwellian slogans used to bias interpretation and you can see just how successful they became. They are STILL used TODAY!
Let me read you a text from the teachings of Jesus that is a
clarion call to you this morning to be courageous in speaking unpopular
things.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.” Matthew 10:24–25:
In other words, expect to be maligned in the world. Don’t
assume, when you are called a name, that you’ve suddenly made a big mistake and
have said something inappropriate. “Oh, I must go back and find another way to
say it so they won’t malign me.” It says you’re going to be maligned. They spit
on him. They crowned him with thorns. They called him names. They laughed at
him… to scorn. Shall we be above our teacher? That’s the point here.
Expect
Hostility
“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:26–31)
Now, the
point of that text is unmistakably clear because of the threefold repetition of
the command. Verse 26: “Have no fear of
them.” Verse 28: “Do not fear those
who kill the body.” Verse 31: “Fear not, therefore; you
are of more value than many sparrows.”
Jesus does not want any of you to be
afraid. And the issue about fear here is what comes out of your mouth. He is
asking His disciples (AND YOU) to speak clearly — that is, in the light, and
forthrightly, and publicly (“on the housetops”) — things that will get you
killed! Before your life is over, it is in all likelihood that you will be
in jail for saying some of the things that I’ve said in this room in these past
two days, or if not in jail, you will be the victim of random violence from
certain communities in society. One of our pastors was shot at on the way home
from church last Sunday night, just randomly, out of the towers across the
street from the church. He heard the bullet go zing! as it
hit the ground beside him.
“I want you to be unafraid, in spite
of what it’s going to cost you, to say things that are unpopular or dangerous.”
Now we have no idea. What was this? Why is this person doing
this? Was it intentional? Police don’t have anything to say about it, but that
doesn’t surprise me at all. Our church is known for a few controversial things.
There are people who live in those towers who don’t like what we say. Guns are
easily available. Some of them are not mentally stable. Now, if you decide,
“Oh, I’m not going to live in a place like that — no way,” what are you? Who’s
your master? What is this? Are you American, or are you Christian? Do you
choose your house for safety, or do you choose your house for ministry? Jesus
is real clear here: Be courageous. Be fearless. So, I want you to be unafraid
this morning, in spite of what it’s going to cost you, to say things that are
unpopular or dangerous.
Mature in Thinking
Now, in
order to do that, you need to really exploit your time here at Church (and in
your study time) to become strong in the truth and strong in the word. “Brothers,
do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking
be mature,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:20.
He wants you to use your time grow more and more mature in your thinking, to
send your roots deeper and deeper into the objective evidences of God’s truth,
so that when you walk out of this place and scatter all over the nation and
around the world, you go with a profound conviction about a few things in the
world. You will always see through a glass darkly. You will never be totally
comprehensive and have all the knowledge that God has. But there are a few
things that you will know.
Let me
give you some examples, now, of the kind of thing I think you need to be really
shrewd about. I called this talk “Lovers of Truth in a Politically Correct
and Gender-Leveling World,” because I’ve lived now in Minneapolis in these
past couple of years, watching the way language is so manipulated by
politically correct people to get their ideas into students’ minds by
circumventing reasoned argument and using clever language.
Just a few examples. My son goes to high school in Minneapolis,
and I go down there sometimes to see him or to do whatever. I went down a year
ago and saw two posters. They were over every doorway leading to the
stairwells, so every student had to pass under these posters. They were
school-sanctioned posters — and they were politically correct, and they were
gender-leveling and homosexuality-endorsing. But the way they did it was
oblique, and remarkably shrewd, and clever, the kind of thing that students by
and large in the ninth through the twelfth grades have not been trained to
discern, and spot, and unpack, and make distinctions. That’s why you are here,
to learn to do that.
‘One in Ten Gay’
Here was one of them — a big, beautiful poster with color, a
rainbow kind of decoration: “One in ten people are gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
They could be your brother, sister, parent, or friend.” That’s all the poster
said. What’s that? What’s that message? It’s crafted in such a way so that if a
parent went into a principal and said, “I don’t like that,” they’d say, “Well,
what don’t you like about it? It doesn’t teach anything.”
Well, there are several problems with
that simple little quote. Number one, the statistic is inflated — 10 percent.
What’s the point of that? The point is to create a feeling in these students,
“My goodness, every tenth person in the hall is gay!” And that is the feeling they want to create, because once
you feel that, you have to say, “It just can’t be as bad as I feel it is.
Something must be wrong with me.” That’s the thought.
Now, it’s inflated; the numbers aren’t 10 percent. No, the
National Center for Health Statistics says 3, William Simon and the Kinsey
Institute say 2 to 3, the Chicago study recently says 1 percent, maybe. Nobody
knows for sure. But 10 percent was one of those inflated figures.
Then here’s the second thing wrong with it. There was no moral assessment
of the behavior. It’s an emotional appeal. Your parent might be gay or
bisexual. Now, when that thought enters a ninth grader’s mind — “My daddy might
be a bisexual” — what’s he supposed to do with that? No teaching. No standards.
Just the thought sown in the kid’s brain. I’ll tell you, what happens is that
he might say, “It just can’t be,” but if it keeps coming back, he’ll say,
“Well, if it were, he’s okay, and it must be okay.” And so you reduce the whole
moral dimension of something being right or wrong. This is politically correct
manipulation of language, to put ideas into minds by short-circuiting clear,
critical thinking. And it happens in every newspaper almost every day, and on
almost every television advertisement, and virtually all kinds of media
efforts.
‘Respect Sees No . . .’
Here was the other poster. It was even more tricky, shorter. The
poster said, “Respect sees no color, gender, sexual orientation, religion,
disability.” That’s all it said. How could you complain about that? What do you
have against respect? What are you, homophobic? What are you, against disabled
people?
All on the Same Level
There are several problems with it.
One is that it puts homosexuality in the same category with sexuality. Gender
and sexual orientation are side-by-side. Respect sees no sexual orientation,
and respect sees no gender, and no color. So, once you’ve got sexual
orientation listed beside whether you’re male or female, and whether you’re
black or white, then you can’t feel any more strongly about this distinction than you can about these distinctions.
Nobody feels that it’s right or wrong to act black or act white.
Nobody feels that it’s right or wrong for a woman to act like a woman and a man
to act like a man. And therefore, obviously, nobody should feel that it’s right
or wrong for a person who has a homosexual orientation to act that way — and
one who has a heterosexual orientation to act that way.
That’s
the message of the poster. As soon as you line up those things without any
distinction — gender, color, religion, sexual orientation — you’ve told the
students, “Treat them on the same level.” They’re not on the same level.
To be a male or a female is a holy and good thing created by God, and endorsed
by God, and in God’s image. To act out a homosexual orientation and to act out
a heterosexual orientation are profoundly different than that category. That’s
the first problem.
No Positive Foundation
The second problem is the statement, “Respect sees no . . .” All that the public schools can do, since they have forsaken virtually all truth and all normative reality, behavior, and God-talk. So, they don’t have any positive foundations for respect. They can’t say to a student, “Respect somebody because you see in them this . . .” They say, “Respect sees no . . .” and then list off things that respect doesn’t see. So it leaves a big void underneath. Well, why should we respect anybody? Which is one of the reasons why there is so little respect among students for anything. The schools can’t provide them with a positive foundation.
“There’s a way to respect somebody no
matter what they’ve done, because they’re created in God’s image.”
The foundation for respecting black and white, and male and
female, and people of other religions, is that God has created all human beings
in his image. There is a way to respect a murderer. There’s a way to respect a
rapist. There’s a way to respect somebody no matter what they’ve done, because
they’re created in God’s image. They are not snakes. They’re not frogs or
horses. They are human beings. No matter what they’ve done — no matter their
sexual orientation, no matter their sex, no matter their religion — there is a
respect that one can accord them even if it might mean putting them in jail.
You don’t put snakes in jail.
But you can’t say anything like that. You can’t provide a
foundation for respect in the image of God. And so students are left with a
groundless call to respect, and they say, “What’s the deal? Why shouldn’t I
shoot him? He mouthed off to me.”
Respect Does See
And the
third problem is that, in fact, respect does see gender and religion.
And it makes a difference. There are courtesies and forms of respect that
men owe to women that they don’t owe to men. The one I could get most agreement
on is that you don’t go in her locker room; you go in his locker room. To tell
these students that respect sees no gender is terribly destructive. It sees she’s
a woman, and I will treat her differently than I treat these guys that I’m
always treating in certain ways. I will offer certain courtesies. I will offer
certain respect. I will acknowledge sexual differences that will mean I don’t
take liberties with her that I might take with him. To tell them, “You don’t
see it,” is wrong.
Same thing with religion. Respect
looks at a Satanist who’s involved in ritual satanic abuse, and he looks at a
Jewish person who’s trying to keep the Ten Commandments. Neither of them knows
Jesus Christ. And he will respect this Jewish person more than this Satanic
person. I’d stand up in any group and say that. Respect does have eyes for gender. It does have eyes for religion. They make a
difference in the kind and form of respect that you give to a person.
Learn to Discern
Well, I just plead with you, take advantage of your years on
Earth to become discerning men and women, so that when you read in the paper,
or when you see a poster, or when you look at a billboard or you hear an
advertisement, you are not blown about — they don’t insinuate ideas in your
mind that don’t come through the critical filter of biblical thinking.
Be the kind of Christian who can go to a principal and explain to a PTA group or a principal just what I’ve explained to you — why those posters or thoughts are destructive — even if they don’t agree with you. The world is dying for want of people to stand up and speak that kind of truth. But realize… you WILL be judged for speaking! Do it anyway!
John
Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org
and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as
pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more
than 50 books, including Desiring
God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Providence.
